Monday, May 26, 2014

Next Thing You Know, They'll Try to Ban Drinking

Don't drink, smoke, or read!

A short item in the May 23, 1907 Princeton Union tells of the latest activities of the Women's Christian Temperance Union:

The W. C. T. U. now proposes to eliminate from the public libraries of the country all novels wherein the heroes or heroines smoke or drink. The old girls will have even a harder proposition than the fellow who runs for president on the democratic ticket.

Twenty-six years before Prohibition, the WCTU was already trying to get all references to smoking and drinking stamped out.

It's not like cigarette makers will
ever claim their product is good
for you

Above, on the same page of short items, we get:

One of those scientist chaps has now discovered that cigarette smoke is a germicide. He should also have added that the person who applies it to his system in sufficient doses eventually becomes a suicide.

It seems that in 1907 someone was trying to be an apologist for tobacco. I don't know if the research was influenced or supported by the tobacco industry though.
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